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Lucengilt
Location and Appearance '''Location''' Lucengilt is located in the middle of Viskont, the Eastern Continent of Abalis' center. With a narrow, but well mapped and navigated, waterway connecting the city-state to the Gilded Lanes, Lucengilt is an economic and cultural powerhouse, with arts and exports reaching the Far North or the Lonely South with ease. Lucengilt is located on a wide, verdant series of hills, plains and fields, known collectively as "The Palm of Silversyr". Lucengilt is surrounded by numerous outlier hamlets and has a series of well-connected roads that allow produce and goods to flow easily to the settlements and towns that populate The Palm. The city itself only has two neighbors: Calicoga, a small city nestled in the crags of the Lunarch Mountains, and Port of Providence, a seaside citadel inundated with legend and myth. '''Appearance''' Lucengilt is a spectacular sight, often the first thing a traveler notices when cresting the Lunarchs and gazing upon the Palms: the City of Spires gleams in the sunlight, like well-polished porcelain melded with a glaze of crystal, and welcomes all light to it. The city is immense: easily taking up several dozen square miles per District, and stretches along from the Lunarchs to the borders of the Forest Unending, Silversyr. Roads bend and warp around the gleaming silver gates of the magnificent metropolis, connecting the Compass Gates, so named for their location, one per direction, to the outside world. Lucengilt's Compass Gates are each heralded by one of the City's Noble Families, and have borne witness to dozens of changes over the years. Currently, each Gate doubles as a military barracks, and a practicum for the arcane to keep the City safe and defended. Within Lucengilt, one finds a thriving community of life and death: vampires and humans walk the streets, together and peacefully, while ghosts and wights fly through the sunny-skies, delivering messages and packages like. Zombies and skeletons chauffeur the citizens to the bustling marketplaces, business sectors and entertainment districts with cheery, enthusiastic aplomb. Myriad menageries, markets and museums mark the metropolis as cultural and tourist sites, each attended by a team of the Living and the Glorious Dead. The City is compiled and constructed of dozens of architectural styles, accrued and created over the City's five-hundred year lifespan (Lucengilt just celebrated its pencentenial only two years ago!), creating a beautiful melding of old and new that contributes heavily to the City's motto of "Living History": in Lucengilt, the Glorious Dead are just as lively as their descendants and fellow citizens. White, black, grey and gold are the standout colors of this bustling township, and sweeping crenelations, gilded arches, narrow walkways emulating spider-webs and thin, twisting paths lend a certain whimsy and mystique to the city's architecture. '''Culture''' '''The Glorious Dead''' ''Without a doubt, Lucengilt's defining feature, aside from its "unique" defenses, is its attachment to History, as they call it. Everything in Lucengilt warps one's understanding of life and death: for crying out loud, one of their Head Judges is a conglomerate of mangled tissue and bone that still thinks itself an archangel. Death, to a Lucengiltian, is simply a brief roadblock and a smattering of paperwork. Head's gone? Just get it bolted back on. Bisected? Nothing a quick change of flesh can't fix. Ghost? The papers are always hiring fliers for fliers. Don't get me started on the sewers.....hordes. Hordes of 'em, just standing there, each of them trying to sell you something or snap a picture of the latest Zilverlane bastard making their genesis. Paparazzi zombies. I don't know if I should be disgusted or impressed. I've never seen such a callous disregard for the sanctity of life and the importance of the soul. Although, frankly, if you're looking to buy one, I know a guy down on Butcher's Boulevard who can sell you a few mangled ones for the right price. - '''Temthue Fortescue, Upon Leaving''''' Lucengilt's proudest tradition and cultural achievement is their unique approach to life and death. Due to the city's blessed location, atop 13 Leylines, there is an abundance of magic that thrums and thrives beneath the cobbled streets. Each citizen of Lucengilt is blessed with a talent for the psyche: the manipulation and transmutation of soul energy, the mind, perception and necromancy. Known as "Glory", each Lucengiltian citizen is granted the choice upon reaching their "Second Beginning", a.k.a. brain death: to be resurrected, or to move on. Almost unanimously, about 99.9787% as of last census, the choice is made for resurrection. As a result, ghosts, undead and geists are as common as humans in the city. How one is resurrected is a matter of one's personal wealth and importance, and as a result, many Lucengiltians cherish material accumulation and social progression, all in hopes that their Second Beginning leads to a higher state of existence. In Lucengilt, everyone can become rich, and if they don't the first life, then they simply can try again as a zombie or ghoul in the next. As a result of this, many come to the City, but few ever find reason to leave. Lucengilt has everything and anything one could wish to own or experience...as long as the price is paid. Generally, one's wealth and stature is accumulated often throughout life, and is passed on to the individual's family or the individual themselves once they pass on: tithes are collected as the preferred resurrection is researched, performed and completed. After resurection, the Lucengiltian is considered to be the same entity, and thus, has all rights, privileges, wealth and titles they had upon reaching death, and then experiencing their return to life. After the "Second Beginning", the title "Glorious Dead" is bestowed upon the citizen, and they are allowed to pursue their ambitions and goals as if they were alive. '''Poverty, Drudges, Polts and Geists''' ''"Frankly, I'd rather be nothing than a gods-forsaken Drudge. To think, the state of such an existence. The shame of it all. Imagine, your mother, enjoying her Second Life, then having to stare at your failure of an ass, cleaning up paper and food wrappers for a chance at recovering your Name? Pathetic, really. Still, Drudges, like all things, have their use: the City has never been cleaner, and frankly, that's something nobody in Abalis can claim." Head Judge Shard, Glorious Dead and Head Arbiter of the Mortheim Legacy'' Of course, for every wealthy Glorious Dead, there are those who die with little, or next to nothing, or abject poverty. In that case, Lucengilt is always in need of public servants, and thus, the body is often converted into a Drudge, a low-class undead that is given a simple goal: maintenance. Upon completion of that goal, the Drudge is allowed to reassemble a small portion of their psyche, or forgiveness of a small portion of debt. Unfortunately, since the Drudge is still the same legal and societal entity, debt and interest can continue to accumulate, even after death. Drudges are often ignored, culturally, and even a family may disown someone underperforming to expectations, to distance themselves from the shame of "harboring a Drudge" in life. Drudges generally resemble black-boned skeletons, often with a number stitched onto their forehead to prevent psychic detection and incursion. This number represents how much debt they've accrued, and once the number reaches zero, a Drudge is allowed to re-enter society. Similarly, deaths that occur in an unexpected circumstance, such as murder, accidental manslaughter, assassination, zombie revolt, geist-explosion, etc., can lead to the creation of a Polt, short for Poltergeist. Polts are creatures of pity, so consumed by regret, misery or rage that they can't, and often times refuse to, move on. Instead, they pick a small portion of the City, and haunt it, demanding answers that will never satisfy, and bestowing curses or blights on those unlucky, or stupid enough, to try and assist. Polts are, often compared to pigeons or rats: vermin, through and through. It is not a rare sight to see Poltcatchers, humans trained to exorcise and regulate spectral populaces, sweeping the City to maintain a semblance of normality. Polts are often attacked and consumed by Geists and Ghosts, in a desperate attempt to maintain their humanity and dwindling memory. Ghosts and Geists are often lumped together in Lucengiltian Necrobiology Circles, and for good reason: in time, every Ghost will devolve into a Geist. For accuracy, the following definitions are commonly accepted for the aforementioned terms: # Ghost- n. A being composed of Psyche, Ectoplasm and Purpose. Ghosts are, by definition, unable to remember much beyond their name, their personas and egos, and a series of goals and desires they wish to complete. Often, Ghosts resemble the person they were in life, although missing pieces of their body or face. This has led to the rise of the derogatory term "Jig" or "Half-heart" in lower class society. # Geist-n. A malevolent entity that, at one point, was a Ghost. Without consuming enough memory, or completing their goals, Geists are consumed, slowly, by the pieces of void that comprise their being. When a Ghost forgets their Name and Personality, they become a Geist: a creature of pure hunger and avarice. Possessing living beings, consuming Glorious Dead and Ghost alike, and devouring wealth are all signs of Geist attacks. Geists are violent creatures, unable to control their whims and desires, and thus, are to be reported to the nearest Exorcist Firm for Permanent Removal. The only good things Geists do is devour Polts en masse. Despite the threat of Ghosts devolving into Geists, the community of spectral peoples, represented by numerous living and unliving personages, are protected under Lucengilt Law as a "Sentient Being", and thus are allowed to exist within the city's boundaries without fear of Exorcism. As a result, many Ghosts are employed by journalists, politicians, businesses and public servants to spread information and search the City for key objects and individuals. This network of Ghosts are protected by the Law, and are paid in both currency and memory. Many Ghosts consume the memories of others in hopes of reliving key events in their first life, and remembering pieces of themselves. This is, of course, to prevent the eventual devolution into Geists. Ghosts are also, by Law, required to wear a small, magical device called a '''''Tutelary Ward''''': this object allows any Living being to force the Ghost to experience immense pain, in case they attempt to steal memory or possess someone without permission. '''The Four Noble Houses of Ravenholdt, Mortheim, Zilverlane and Von Helmut.''' '''House Ravenholdt''' '''The Mortheim Legacy''' '''The Von Helmut Family''' '''The Zilverlane Estate'''